Interview Feedback
Level 8
28/02/12 PM
1.) Mohamad Samini
Mohamad listened well and understood my questions without any difficulties. He has a wide range of vocabulary and provided accurate examples of both the past and present simple as well as self-correcting, on occasion. Although Mohamad clearly has adequate language ability, his answers were short and he needed encouragement to expand them. He must also remember to use plurals when talking in general terms, for example, instead of ‘earthquake is the worst’, he needs to use ‘earthquakes are...’.
2.) Erfan Shirvani ABSENT
3.) Negar Mohamadi
Negar spoke well throughout the interview and provided a number of examples of what supplies are necessary to survive a natural disaster and the responsibilities governments should have. Her response on books and newspapers was also detailed and nicely put together. Two main areas for Negar to focus on are her pronunciation of specific words such as ‘casualty’ and ‘contamination’ and to practise her prepositions to try and avoid mistakes like ‘sometimes in the night’ rather than ‘sometimes at night’.
4.) Shiva Roshan Gheyas
Shiva understood my questions well and provided interesting and detailed responses, although she did seem quite nervous. Her advice on how to prepare for a natural disaster was excellent and she took advantage of some pre-learned phrases across all topics of the interview which worked well and meant it wasn’t necessary for her to construct too many of her own sentences, which she was clearly nervous about doing. In order to make her own language more accurate, Shiva must practise her subject verb agreements and general sentence structure.
5.) Parvin Taghavi
Parvin had no trouble understanding the majority of my questions and those she was unsure about, she clarified before answering, which is the right thing to do. Her range of vocabulary is wide, particularly with regards to natural disasters and supplies and she self-corrected a slight mistake in possessive pronoun. Unfortunately, Parvin made a couple of repeated mistakes throughout the interview including forgetting main verbs and mixing up adjectives and verbs such as ‘destruct’ and ‘destructive’. Taking some time to learn the patterns that usually indicate whether a word is a verb, noun, adjective or adverb would really help Parvin in the future.
6.) Reza Zarie
Reza started off with a relaxed and informal chit chat and continued to spoke very confidently throughout the interview. He provided a nice level of detail of a book he had most recently read and accurately remained in the past simple until he had finished describing it which shows a good awareness of the importance of tense. Unfortunately, Reza lost marks because of some simple grammatical errors such as ‘he’/’she’ mix up, a lack of subject verb agreements and missed prepositions. The first two can be easily fixed with slightly more attention to detail on Reza’s behalf. Using prepositions is more difficult but will improve with concentrated practise.
7.) Mohamad Tajali
Generally, Mohamad understood my questions well and only slightly mis-answered on one occasion when I asked how he would help someone that had been affected by a natural disaster and he explained how he would prepare for one. He gave some good detail on his reading habits and included some extreme adjectives to convey his enthusiasm. When constructing his own responses however, Mohamad tended so miss out some key words such as the main verb itself and, although he gave some correct prepositions, he needs to revise them in order to avoid mistakes like ‘associated to’ and ‘on my free time’.
8.) Hosen Tavakoli Mosavi
Hosen provided some good answers to my questions which he seemed to understand without complication. His level of vocabulary is fine, as is his pronunciation and he tried to provide supporting examples in his responses. In order to improve, Hosen needs to spend some time attending to his basic grammar so as to try and avoid future mistakes such as inaccurately including the verb ‘to be’ as in, ‘I’m work..’ and forgetting subjects or correct articles.
9.) Marziyeh Shirojan
Marziyeh’s pronunciation is fine and it wasn’t necessary for her to ask for any questions to be repeated which shows a good standard of listening. She also provided accurately-constructed information on when she likes to read. Marziyeh needs to remember the importance of tense in her speaking; she started a story in the past but after the first verb returned the present simple. She must also become familiar with using adverbs of frequency rather than relying on ‘two times’ which sounds very basic and unnatural.
10.) Maryam Norali
Maryam’s pronunciation is fine and she answered all of my questions without difficulty. She included modal verbs when describing what people ‘should’ do in the case of a natural disaster and refered to a previous disaster with the past simple. There are, however, a few things Maryam needs to be aware of in order to improve her English. She must be sure to use plural nouns when talking in generalities as in ‘earthquakes are...’ rather than ‘earthquake is...’, and remember that when speaking in English, she needs to give dates in the western calendar rather than the Iranian to avoid confusion. She should also consider expanding her vocabulary, particularly her adjectives, in order to give her speech a little more variety.
11.) Maryam Norozi
Maryam provided detailed answers to my questions and included reasons and examples, where possible. Her pronunciation is fine and she was able to understand most of my questions without confusion. However, she must focus on adding structure to her answers by revising sentence structure and not just continuing to speak in a disjointed manner. A short but carefully constructed response is far more effective than one where the speaker does not know when to stop. She should prioritise how to express her free time interests e.g., ‘Like + gerund/infinitive’ or simply memorise some accurate sentences if relying on understanding the structure is too advanced. Students should really be past such mistakes at this level.
12.) Nilofar Ronam
Nilofar’s pronunciation is excellent and she possesses a wide range of vocabulary. She also clarified some questions before responding which is certainly the right thing to do if you have any doubt as to what is being asked and shows a nice attention to detail and accuracy. Although Nilofar’s grammar is generally good, there are some areas which she needs to focus on in order to continue to improve with such accuracy. The first is the need for plural nouns when talking in general terms; the second is the need for ordinal numbers when discussing time/date e.g., ‘21st Century’ rather than ’21 Century’.
13.) Hamid Reza Bayat
Hamid Reza included some good linguistic features in his interview including accurate comparatives and modal verbs and continuously expanded his answers without the need for encouragement. Hamid is a confident listener and speaker but needs to pay more attention to his grammatical accuracy if he wants to obtain higher marks in future assessments. His subject verb agreements should be concentrated on when speaking because they are affecting his fluency considerably at present. He must also watch his presentation of present and past verbs such as ‘read’ where the spelling is the same but the pronunciation informs us what time frame you are talking in.
14.) Soror Amir Tavasoli
Soror spoke well throughout the interview and expanded her answers and provided examples without encouragement. Her pronunciation is fine, as is her range of vocabulary and she has good listening skills. Although her fluency is quite good, her grammatical accuracy needs some attention and she forgot key verbs and adjectives on occasion. She needs to also spend some time on her prepositions; particularly those that feature in commonly used phrases such as ‘it depends on’.
15.) Mohamad Hosein Golkarfard
Mohamad’s listening and speaking skills are both excellent; his pronunciation in particular is great and he clearly feels at ease communicating in English. His vocabulary is sophisticated and his answers were thoughtful and carefully delivered. There are, however a couple of corrections he could look to make next time. Firstly, when discussing his collection of car magazines, he used the present simple to refer to an activity that started in the past and is still continuing now; for this he needs to use the present perfect continuous e.g., ‘I have been collecting...’. Secondly, Mohamad needs to be careful not to confuse his nouns and verbs e.g., ‘warn’ and ‘warning’.
16.) Fatemeh Eizadi
Fatemeh is clearly very passionate about her language learning and showed great enthusiasm throughout the interview. Her listening skills are very good and she tried hard to provide detailed and accurate answers but was held back by a lack of vocabulary. In order to improve, Fatemeh should prioritise obtaining as much vocabulary as possible which would give her more opportunity to express her ideas the way she would like. She also needs to remember to use plural nouns when speaking in general terms.
17.) Sahar Sadeghi Bogar
Sahar understood my questions well and was able to provide suitable answers without too much difficulty. An example from the past was delivered in the past simple and verbs remained in this form until the end of the story which is good and there were a couple of self-corrections confirming this attention to detail. Sahar’s mistakes were made in two main areas: the first is the occasional omitting of main verb in sentences that would otherwise have been accurate; the second the use of the present continuous rather than the present simple to discuss free time hobbies and habits. This should both be focused on in future.
18.) Reza Rashidi
Reza understood my questions well and produced a wide range of interesting vocabulary in his responses. He included some very useful phrases and pre-learned sentences which were delivered naturally and sounded good. Overall, his general grammar is good but he did seem to become quite nervous when he was unable to structure the answer he was looking for which slowed him down and affected his fluency. Reza’s English is at a fairly high level but he would benefit from trying to improve his confidence when not able to rely on a rehearsed answer which can be done through more speaking practise on discussiontopics he has not yet covered in class.
19.) Mohamad Javad Rahmaniyan
Mohamad has a good hold on the English language and both understands and speaks well, although he did seem slightly nervous. His use of the past simple was accurate throughout as was his present perfect and he has an excellent range of vocabulary, both technical and non-technical. He also included correctly-used superlatives and prepositions. My main recommendation for Mohamad going forward would be to focus on trying to become more confident in his speaking. If he could manage this it would highly compliment his other skills.
20.) Mosameh Siros
Mosameh had no major difficulties understanding the questions and was able to provide suitable answers throughout. Her delivery of her free time activities was accurate and her pronunciation and level of vocabulary were fine. Unfortunately, Mosameh made a number of grammatical mistakes including some simple things likes forgetting articles, incorrect subject verb agreements, and not using plurals when talking in general terms. It would benefit her to revise some of her basic grammar rules and work hard to try and implement them in her speaking.
21.) Mersad Abdolahi
Mersad both listened and spoke with confidence and clearly feels at ease communicating in English. His range of vocabulary is advanced and he has some useful expressions and phrases which worked well in this interview. There are a couple of areas for Mersad to work on; the first is his pronunciation which is too fast and slightly mumbled and can make it difficult to understand him at times. Although he is obviously very comfortable with his speaking, he needs to slow down in order to avoid this. He also made a couple of mistakes with his subject verb agreements which were probably also a result of the speed at which he speaks. With such fluency, he should really make the time to ensure what he is saying is fully understood.